The present invention relates to a foldable multifunctional carriage, particularly for use in performing cleaning and maintenance tasks in hospitals or any other large-area public or private building, said carriage comprising rollers on which are mounted a rigid portion and a foldable framework which can be placed either into an operative unfolded position or an inoperative folded position.
Maintenance and cleaning tasks in large-area buildings often include a sequence of individual tasks each requiring proper utensils and accessories. As an example, in hospitals and collective restaurants, these tasks consist in sweeping floor, then cleaning it with water, dusting furniture, emptying garbage bins, etc. In order to be able to perform these various tasks, the housekeeper in charge of the cleaning tasks should permanently have at her immediate disposal various utensils and accessories which may be heavy and cumbersome, such as brooms, floor cloth, water pails, manually-operated wringing machine, bags for garbage, flasks of various household products and the like. For such a purpose, the housekeeper is equipped with a carriage on which all the above articles can be grouped together.
So as to impart them maximum capacity, known carriages used for the above purposes have been given a relatively bulky construction, which renders them heavy and uneasy to handle. In addition, these carriages are cumbersome and, since a great number, sometimes several tens, of them are used in a single hospital or restaurant, it is further necessary to provide a large-area room for storing or parking them, which is particularly disadvantageous, especially because of the relatively high cost of built floor areas in hospitals.
The latter problem has been in part overcome by the commercial production of foldable carriages. However, in order to be able to give a foldable construction to such carriages, their capacity must be reduced. Furthermore, it is rather uneasy to fold them back, and such a folding is not sufficiently satisfactory for storing the carriages in the smallest possible space area.